Some kind of data may have values that are related to various locations in an area. The locations may be geographical locations or other types of locations, for instance positions in an image. In order to facilitate a processing of the data, the data may be associated to one or more grid points of a grid, the grid points representing a limited number of locations with a suitable spacing to each other.
For example, modern global cellular and non-cellular positioning technologies are based on collecting large global databases containing information on cellular and non-cellular signals. This data may originate entirely or partially from users of these positioning technologies.
The data provided by users is typically in the form of “fingerprints”, which contain a location that is estimated based on, e.g., received satellite signals of a global navigation satellite system (GNSS) and the measurements taken from one or more radio interfaces for signals of a cellular and/or non-cellular terrestrial system. For measurements on cellular signals, the measurements may contain a global and/or local identification (ID) of the cellular network cells observed, their signal strengths and/or pahtlosses, and timing measurements like timing advance (TA) or round-trip time. For measurements on wireless local area network (WLAN) signals, as an example of signals of a non-cellular system, the measurements may contain a basic service set identification (BSSID), like the medium access control (MAC) address of observed access points, the service set identifier (SSID) of the access points, and the signal strength of received signals (received signal strength indication RSSI or physical Rx level in dBm with a reference value of 1 mW, etc.).
This data may then be transferred to a server or cloud, where various radio models may be generated for positioning purposes. In this process, the measurements may be associated to grid points of a grid that represent locations close to the respective measuring position. In the end, these refined radio models may be transferred back to user terminals for use in position determination.